Monday, December 29, 2014

The AirAsia Plane Disappearance

Just so people know, the usual suspects are on CNN giving their usual spiel on something that so far nobody knows what happened. Unfortunately for CNN, there is little doubt this plane, unlike MH370, WILL be found thanks to the relatively shallow water in the Java Sea as opposed to the miles-deep Indian Ocean.

The network won't be able to drag this tragedy out for weeks and weeks like the Malaysian flight.

I hope there are survivors of the AirAsia plane, but the longer the search goes on, the less chance any survivors will be found.

The WSWS notes today that AirAsia, like other Asian airlines, operates at rock-bottom costs. Some background:

AirAsia Indonesia is 48.9 percent owned by its Malaysian parent company, which has grown rapidly since it was bought in 2001 as a bankrupt state enterprise for just 25 US cents by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes. It is one of the most ruthlessly operated of the low-cost airlines, with very high productivity rates extracted from its workforce, an aircraft turnaround time of 25 minutes and an aircraft utilisation rate of 13 hours per day—among the highest internationally. The loss of Flight QZ8501 is the first disaster involving an AirAsia aircraft.